Parents of Pulse victim Wright endorse Bloomberg for president
The parents of Jerry Wright, one of the victims of the Pulse shootings in Orlando in 2016, endorsed Michael Bloomberg for president on Thursday.
Maria and Fred Wright, of Pinecrest, Florida, describe themselves as moderate Republicans. They called Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination, “a huge supporter” of families of gun violence victims through his Everytown Survivor Network.
“To me, the fact that he has been supporting gun violence prevention and gun safety for so many years was the main reason that we had to endorse him,” Maria Wright said. “If you want to know who has been trying to do something about the gun violence issue for a very long time, in a fairly effective way, it’s Mayor Bloomberg.”
She said that while many of the other Democratic candidates claim to be “champions on gun violence, that is not exactly true. Bernie Sanders has not been supportive of the movement until recently.”
The Wrights have been registered Republicans for years, Fred Wright said, “Yet we feel that the Republican Party has done absolutely nothing on this, and they are actually going backwards on the subject.”
Gun violence, Fred said, “is not a political issue. It is an American issue. And that’s that children are dying. … The bullets don’t care whether you’re Republican, Democrat or independent.”
Jerry Wright, 31, was a seasonal employee who had worked most recently in merchandising on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom.
He had also worked in Tomorrowland and before that at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Wright went to Pulse that night to help a friend, Cory James Connell, celebrate his 21st birthday. Connell was also killed in the shootings, which claimed the lives of 49 people.
Bloomberg has also been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Winter Park, who also serves as the campaign’s national cochair, and Osceola Commissioner Viviana Janer.
The Florida Democratic presidential primary is March 17.